Stephen Edwin King

Carrie & The Dark Tower stories; National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (2003)

Stephen Edwin King is an American author, novelist,
actor, director, producer and screenwriter, but most of all, he is noted
for his excellence in contemporary horror, fantasy and science fiction.
Better known as King, the author displays a scrupulous and meticulous
knowledge in the horror and science genre and its history. King is also
known as "Richard Bachman" and sometimes "John Swithen", pseudonyms he used for
his many works. King's first success as a writer came with the novel
Carrie which was a phenomenon story of a girl with psychic powers.
However, his best work remains a series of stories published as The Dark Tower, a mixture of fantasy and science. The series was published in five installments in four decades, beginning from the 1970s
to the 2000s. Many of his works have been adapted in to films, plays,
comics and television series. King has received numerous awards and
prizes among which the most notable is the National Book Foundation's
Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, awarded in
2003.

Childhood & Education

Stephen King was born on 21 September 1947 in Portland, Maine in
the United States. His father left the family when he was very young and
his mother took him and his adopted brother to Indiana, Stratford,
Connecticut. The family returned to Durham, Maine after few years where
his mother took a job of a caterer and raised her children with her
scanty income.

King began his education with the Durham Elementary School where his
early interest for horror surfaced for the first time. Throughout his
school life, King was an ardent reader of EC's horror comics, including
Tales from the Crypt. King began writing stories while still a student
and contributed articles to newspapers. His first work entitled I was a
Teenage Grave Robber was published in 1965. The work was later published
as In a Half-World of Terror.

In 1966, King enrolled in the University of Maine, where he studied
English for next four years and graduated in 1970 with a degree in
Bachelor of Science in English. While at college, he wrote a column for
the college newspaper The Maine Campus and wrote his first professional
short story for publication entitled The Glass Floor. The story was
published in Startling Mystery Stories in 1967.
Early Life & Career

While at college, King supported his education and family's hard
pressed finance by taking small jobs and selling his stories to various
magazines. Initially wanted to become a teacher, King began writing
short stories for magazines after he failed to obtain a teaching job
immediately. During this period, he met and fell in love with a fellow
student Tabitha Spruce. The couple married in 1971 and in the same year,
King was appointed as a teacher at Hampden Academy in Maine.
While teaching there, King continued to write stories and working on
his future novels. During this period, King became addicted to alcohol
and drugs and would lead a life troubled by his addiction to drugs like
marijuana until late 1980s.

King's first success came as a novelist with his novel Carrie,
depicting a girl with psychic powers. The novel was first published in
1974 by publishing house Doubleday. Though he received a scanty amount
for the novel, the reception of this book was warm and made him a known
name in the literary world of America. By this time the author had
become addicted to the alcohol to the extent of getting drunk on his
mother's funeral, who died in 1974 after a long phase of illness. King
next wrote The Shining, which was published in 1977 followed by his
fourth novel The Stand, published in the next year.
Success as a Writer

During 1970s, King embarked on writing a series of interrelated stories. The collection would become known as The Dark Tower
Stories and were first published by the Magazine of Fantasy and Science
Fiction. They were published in five installments beginning from 1977
till 1981. The collection is believed to be one of his masterpieces and
would be published till the early 2000s. Due to the lack of proper
publicity of the book, it received a lukewarm response initially though,
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger was the first stunning success of his
fantasy fiction. With the success of the book, King Edwin found himself
in the front row of the fantasy and horror fiction writers. During
2000s, King modified the original version of the book The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger which was published in 2003.

King continued to write short stories, with a pace slower than
previous and produced novels - Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979),
Roadwork (1981), The Running Man (1982) and Thinner (1984). All these
books carried the pseudonym Richard Bachman. In 1999, King was struck by
a car and was badly injured in a hideous accident that left him with a
broken leg and punctured lungs. He never recovered completely and in a
moment of melancholy, thought of retirement. However, he later changed
his mind and resumed work on his unfinished novel On Writing. He also
wrote an account of the accident in the last book of the Dark Tower series.

Family & Children

King married his wife Tabitha in 1971 and the couple has three
children; two sons Owen King and Joseph Hillstrom and a daughter Naomi.
Both of his sons took up the profession of their father and now are
reputed authors. In 2005, Joseph Hillstrom was honored for his
collection of short stories 20th Century Ghosts and his first novel
Heart-Shaped Box will be soon adapted into a film by an Irish director
Neil Jordan. King's daughter Naomi has served as a minister in the
Unitarian Universalist Church in New York and is now minister of the
Unitarian Universalist Church of Plantation, Florida. King and Tabitha
also have three grandchildren.
Awards & HonorsSince the release of Cujo and The Shining, King has become one
of the best selling novelists and the most successful writer in the
history of horror. Many of his books have been adapted in to movies and
serials with many of them featuring King himself. King has been awarded 6
Bram Stoker Awards, 6 Horror Guild Awards, 5 Locus Awards, 3 World
Fantasy Awards, Hugo Award. His best rewards came in 2003, when he was
given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Horror Writer's Association.
In 2003, he was also given the most disputed and controversial award, a
Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters which was not
well taken by some in the literary world. The reason why the selection
of his name for the award outraged many critics and authors, was what
they described his works as "of low quality and non-literature" However,
many from the elite literary group came forward in his support and
dismissed such ideas. In 2007, another Lifetime achievement award was
given to him by the Canadian Literary Guild, making him the only
non-Canadian to receive this award.

Stephen Edwin King Timeline:

1947- Stephen King was born on 21 September.

1965- His first work entitled I was a Teenage Grave Robber was published.

1966- King enrolled in the University of Maine.

1967- His first professional short story for publication entitled The Glass Floor was published.

1970- He graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Science in English.

1971- King married Tabitha.

1974- His first successful novel Carrie was published.

1974- His mother died after a long illness.

1977- The first book of the Dark Tower series was published.

1999- King was struck by a car and was badly injured.

2003- The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger was published in 2003.

2003- He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Horror Writer's Association.

2003- King was awarded a Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters

2005- King's son Joseph Hillstrom was honored for his collection of short stories 20th Century Ghosts.

2007- Another Lifetime achievement award was given to him by the Canadian Literary Guild.